Several methods exist for fabricating micro- and nanostructures, and, particularly, for fabricating electrically-conductive and/or semi-conductive films having micro- and/or nano-scale features. The most commonly used methods for micro- and nanofabrication—photolithography and e-beam writing—have certain limitations: high capital and operating costs, small areas of exposure, and limitations on sizes of features. Many new techniques are being developed to circumvent these current limitations of traditional lithography. A theme common to several of these techniques is size-reduction: that is, using “large and easy to fabricate” masks or templates to yield similarly shaped features that are a fraction of the original size. Size-reduction techniques using variations on photolithography include phase-shifting photolithography, photolithography with undercutting at lithographically defined step-edges, edge lithography with deposition or removal of material in regions defined by defects at the edges of topographic features, and size-reduction photolithography. Edge-spreading lithography, a combination of microcontact printing and controlled chemical diffusion, is a non-photo lithographic technique that also uses mesoscopic templates to generate nanometer features.
While the above-described methods represent significant advances in micro- and nanofabrication, improvements are needed.